BlogHop 09

I'm not at BlogHer. (Sulk.) But if you're reading this you aren't either! (Sorry to rub it in.) So break out the booze and the snackies, cause it's party time!

I live with my partner and our 14 year old son and 16 year old daughter. I don't have a giveaway per see, but I do run a monthly Top Commenter Contest over at Lola's Diner where I reward my Top Comment Whores, (I mean Top Commenters). Still plenty of time to join in. Just start commenting!

At Lola's Victory Garden I blog about the progress of my Victory Garden. With a limited income and tough times I need to stretch every penny. Planting my own garden, will not only give me the freshest, best tasting produce now, but I plan on canning my surplus.

Canned Bread and Butter Zucchini Pickles, Dilled Green Beans, Basil Green Beans, Pickled Asparagus, Tomatillo Salsa (yum!) and Tomato Sauce are just a few of the veggies I canned last year. Last year I also made Strawberry Jam, Blueberry Jam, Bluebarb Jam and my favorite, Blackberry Jam. I have also canned meatloaf and barbecued pork. (Yes! It's good too!)

This year I'm hoping to add coleslaw, pickles and brussels sprouts (they are delish! And I'm totally addicted to the ones they sell at my local Farmer's Markets.

If you are on Twitter, follow me. My Twitter Id is "lolasdiner".

Why not become a follower and follow my garden and my canning escapades?

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009

If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays - Worst Cooking Disasters

Come join me for a very special edition of If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! We'll be taking time out to share some memories. We'll Blog Back Time with possible ways to right past wrongs or about how times have changed. We'll share childhood memories, school/work memories, family and friend memories.

Today's topic is: Worst Cooking Disasters

Come on, even Lola has had 1 cooking disaster, (ok, 2) what about you?

Did you have some cooking disasters early in college, early in your marriage?

Did you make a disastrous mess?

Did it turn out awful?

This week's topic courtesy of Stephany @ Soulful Sepulcher.

Since this cooking disaster has to do with canning, I thought I would post it here on Lola's Victory Garden. I can't say I've really had many cooking disasters. Mine mostly revolve around taking on too much and making an incredible mess. The second one would be when I tried to can Pumpkin Butter. Before I go any further I must mention that the USDA does not approve of canning Pumpkin Butter because it is too dense to insure proper processing. This was the first thing I ever attempted to can and I had an old recipe book. If you're canning, make sure your recipe book is up to date, or that you are aware of current procedures and what products and/or procedures the USDA approves of.

This was a complete disaster, beginning to end. And so much mess. I can tell you now that I will never take on cooking pumpkin. From that day forward I will only buy canned pumpkin for pies and baked goods. First off, pumpkin is difficult to peel and cut into cubes. Second of all, it takes forever to boil until it is soft enough to mash or process in a food processor and you must first remove all the excess water. My kitchen table and floor was full of pumpkin guts, even though I planned ahead and laid newspaper down. (Only on the table.) After I canned it I put it in my pantry. Before I attempted sampling it I discovered that Pumpkin Butter was not safe to can, per the USDA, so I ended up pitching them, cute little jars and all. (Now I'm kicking myself, because I could be using those cute little jars for jam.) This was at about 10 years ago.

Now it's your turn. Please post your "Worst Cooking Disasters" on your blog. Then come back to Lola's Diner and leave the actual post link here. Please grab the html code for If I Could Blog Back Time Thursdays! Badge HERE.

Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

IF YOU SEE THAT MckLinky APPEARS TO NOT BE WORKING, PLEASE POST A LINK TO YOUR "FIRST TIME I STOOD UP FOR MYSELF" IN THE COMMENTS TO MAKE SURE WE ARE AWARE OF YOUR PARTICIPATION. THANK YOU!


PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MckLinky IS STRICTLY FOR 'IF I COULD BLOG BACK TIME THURSDAYS' PARTICIPANTS ONLY.
ANY OTHER LINKS WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT PREJUDICE!

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009

Weekend Garden

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Weeds are still getting out of control, even with the hay. I need to motivate one of my kids to help me rake away the hay and lay down newspaper, and then put the hay back on top of the newspaper.

2 green tomatoes

Zucchini is flowering

Cabbage is growing

....06/13/09...............06/30/09..................07/17/09

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009

Weekly Blog Hop - Intro

***Join me as I embark on this year's Victory Garden. I've had gardens before, but this year more than ever we will be relying on our garden as a food source.***

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009

Garden Update

Our Rose Bush came back. We thought it had died. It kind of did. Last year we had Peach colored Roses and Yellow Roses from this same plant. Apparently the nursery had grafted 2 varieties together. In any case, only the Yellow Rose is blooming.

06/03/09 06/30/09

Look how tall our Sunflowers have grown!
This is what our garden looks like today. I need to pick up some additional garden fence stakes this weekend because we did not have enough. The bamboo stakes Anastasia substituted for the stakes we were short are not working out.

First tomato!

Our first grapes!

The weather was wonderful today! I got a chance to begin tying our growing tomatoes to the cages and stakes. (Ok, to be honest I did maybe 1/3 before I cried Uncle. If Anastasia didn't have a chance to finish I'll be back at it again Wednesday.)

The hay has been working out quite well at helping our garden retain moisture. When I went in to tie the tomatoes I was surprised to find the ground soft and wet even though we hadn't watered for more than a day. I was not happily surprised when I discovered that weeds were still popping through the hay. The hay has greatly slowed down the proliferation of weeds, however, it does not prevent them.

I hope to be motivating our kids over the next few days to turn over the other garden plot so that we can get our seedlings planted for pumpkins, butternut squash and acorn squash. We hope to get those planted by the weekend, depending on the weather. The weather service has been promising rain, but so far has not come through.

How is your garden doing?

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009

My Weekend Garden 06/20/09

Look at me! I got a jump on things and took this photo on Friday. Anastasia and our son have been working hard getting the plants in. Wednesday they put the stakes and the fencing in. (This was the fencing we bought on our big shopping trip.) They also put hay to keep the weeds at bay. I had a bit of difficulty finding hay. None of the big box stores had it, but I was able to find it at a local garden center for $6.99 for a large bale.

We are not quite done planting our finds from last week. If the rain stays away this weekend we may be able to finish. All that's left are the peppers: Bell Peppers, Habanero (our son insisted), jalapeno (I use them in canning and in my chili) and yellow banana peppers (hoping to can these because our son and I can't get enough of them).

I also started some seeds this past weekend and they have already begun to sprout. I used my newspaper pot method and mixed seed starting mix with vermiculite.

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009

My Weekend Garden 06/13/09

I just posted the photos from last week, so go check out Weekend Garden 06/06/09. (Looks kind of hillbilly right now, but once we get more mulch we can cover the landscape fabric and it will look better.)

Our Sunflowers we started from seeds are going like gangbusters and almost a foot tall.
The other seeds we started = fail. My initial thoughts about the Self Watering Greenhouses proved to be correct. The tiny peat pots with some sort of mesh covering proved too small and hindered root growth. All we got were short spindle like plants that could not even stand on their own. The San Marzano Plum Tomatoes looked like single blades of grass 4 inches high with a couple of tiny leaves. Very disappointing. We dumped the rejects into the compost bin. I hate to tell Anastasia "I told you so", but she doesn't read this blog, so I can type it here. I told you so. Hehehehe! Sorry hon! Next year we will go with my original plan which was to go with the newspaper pots that I rolled. I used them last year to start seeds and they were very successful.

We admitted defeat and headed out to a garden center today. Hoorah for us! They are closing up for the season (just a little roadside stand really) and everything was clearance priced. Clearance is my middle name, in case you were wondering. All their plants were very healthy and were $9 per flat. Vegetable plants and flowering plants, mix or match. Normally they go for at least $3 per 4 plant cube. Since there are 12 per flat that would have been $36. A savings of $27 per flat. Woo hoo! We bought 3 flats. We bought several varieties of tomatoes, peppers; cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini and tomatillos.
That is the statue we purchased last week after the farmer's market. Anastasia has been wanting one of those since we moved to the burbs.

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009